With the increasing use of mobile devices, the demand for high speed access to voice, video and data is rapidly growing, driving the need for more, higher speed optical communication lines and higher density connections between the optical communications network. Network providers will frequently install new optical communications parallel to existing copper communication lines to help handle the added bandwidth that customers are demanding. In order to streamline costs and maximize efficiency of the network infrastructure, the network providers will often retrofit the existing copper infrastructure to accommodate the new optical communication lines. This can be especially challenging in roadside cross connect cabinets which have a finite volume. Another issue facing network providers is the higher degree of skill and new installation tooling required for the field technician to join optical communication lines.
Additional issues can arise at data centers which serve as the nexus between the copper and optical communication networks. Large data centers may typically need to manage several thousand or tens of thousands of single fiber connections at the patch panel level on a single rack. The space and simplicity of use of these single fiber connections are the key needs in high count fiber datacenters. Currently, many data center customers are using traditional fusion splicing or factory made fiber termination solutions.
Conventional fusion splicing is commonly used to simultaneously connect two optical fibers together for fiber to the home installations. For example, a fiber from subscriber ONU pigtail can be directly connected to a fiber from Floor Distribution Unit (FDU) connection panel. Fusion splicing requires highly skilled technicians to have high quality optical fiber cleaver and a fusion splice machine in order to create the fusion splice inside of a heat shrinkable protective tube.
Conventional single fiber terminations commonly employed in data centers utilize two male connectors (e.g., SC or LC format optical fiber connectors), and a corresponding adapter, to interconnect a pair of optical fibers. Standard epoxy and ferrule based optical fiber connectors require several precision components (e.g., springs, ferrules, housings, shrouds, and the like) that may result in a higher cost termination solution because these connectors can require more tools, skill and time to install in the field. Additionally, epoxy connectors are more suitable for factory termination.
On the front side of a data center rack, patch cords are used to interconnect a pair of ports. Factory assembled patch cords are assembled in discrete lengths with a male optical fiber connector disposed on each end. Because the patch cords are pre-assembled, the patch cord length may be much longer than what is necessary for a given patching connection, potentially resulting in large amounts of excess cable that need to be managed and stored.
On the back side of a data center rack, multi-fiber input cables have to be spliced to connectorized pigtails. The need to accommodate splicing capacity on the rack requires the use of valuable real estate and reduces the patching capacity of the rack.
More recently, field terminated optical connectors having a factory prepared and installed fiber stub and a mechanical splice element have simplified installation procedures so that connectors are easier to use in the field. However, using a conventional field mountable connection termination solution still requires two optical connectors and an adapter, and one may desire to have a solution with fewer necessary components.
Thus, there is a need for a high density field connection system that has a minimal number of parts and that enables simplified installation and assembly.